Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

We've been pulling some early mornings and late nights at the  New Carnival Company  to get ready for  Mardi Gras  on Saturday. I've been making very good progress on my peacock costume, which is great as it means I won't be naked during the parade!!! Ooh er! On tuesday we were all very happy and excited in the morning because the NCC were granted their creative programme funding from the Arts Council! Congratulations NCC! Here's Gina pouring out our celebratory breakfast: Aw yisss! Here's me enjoying it: Yayaya! I worked on my headpiece, arranging the various feathers out carefully before the final Gluing: Here's a rare photo of me enjoying the feathered headpiece: In the end I trimmed down that very tall middle feather slightly as it was a bit obnoxiously long(!) and added an extra blue piece in the middle of the base structure. This is what they (in carnival-land) refer to as the 'Rio' style headpiece; e.g. an explosion of feathers...

Today was the first day of the final push towards Mardi Gras day! With only 4 days to go, we'll be putting the finishing touches onto costumes and making everything fabulous and gorgeous this week. Today started by finishing off these spicy little numbers for the  Viva Carnival Club  that we started last monday: After that it was time for a team meeting; starting to plan the actual logistics of carnival day. There's a lot to do; making sure everyone knows where they need to be at what time, decorating, entertainment and refreshments... as a carnival newbie it's all fresh to me but I shall do my best to keep up! Next I finished the feathered friend I started on wednesday [for before pictures, you can click here ]: It looks gorgeous now that it's plumage is fully restored! And I made a new circular piece for another costume that needed a little touching up: Shiny! Then Gina and I finished off the backpacks for the Equals ladies that go with the Delhi Durba...

On thursday and friday this week we mainly worked on a set of costumes representing the  Delhi Durbar , including red, white, blue and gold tent skirts and a giant elephant puppet! The main part of the skirts had already been made last week, so we just had to decorate and finish them with the Equals group (who will be wearing them next saturday). The first part of this process was to finish the decorative side panels by covering them with fabric: And cutting them out with the most ginormous pair of scissors I've ever seen! Then goldifying them: Then adding wire inside so that they can be bent into a 3D effect (this will make sense later): After that they were all hand printed with a stamp Gina had made from foam and gold paint: Before After Everyone in the group had a go at printing which was another fine example of teamwork; I did the first couple of prints, then I showed the next lady how to do it, and she showed the next and so on! Then when they were dr...

Today I started working on some of the big, exciting carnival costumes at  Carnival HQ . The first job of the day was to spruce up an existing peacock feather backpack; mending bent feathers and tidying it up a bit using special industrial glue: We're planning to add a few more feathers to it so that it can be worn in the Mardi Gras... if all goes to plan it will be me wearing it! This is really exciting because I will have helped design and make my own costume, something more fabulous than I've ever worn before (and I've worn some pretty fabulous stuff)! After the peacock, I started on this little red and yellow number: Before Again mending loose feathers and adding a couple more in. This one had been rained on at last year's event and needs a bit more TLC; we'll be adding more red feathers when the delivery comes in. Here's a picture after I'd started mending it: After It still needs a little more work. I've never worked with feathers b...

This week I began my volunteering / work experience stint at The  New Carnival Company ; regular readers will remember my recent day trip there to meet them. Their 'flagship event', the Mardi Gras will take place on July 1st so I'm here to lend a hand getting ready for that - primarily in the costume department. Monday was all about travelling down to the Isle of Wight from Bournemouth and settling in, although in the afternoon I helped with prepping for Tuesday's school session. This mostly involved a lot of cutting up ribbons: ribbin And making belts / waistbands with double-sided tape and ribbon. Very sticky tricky indeed! After that Gina and I prepped some chest pieces for 'spice' themed costumes made with fabric printed by some of the carnivalers with foam stamps and acrylic paint which turned out really nicely: After that it was home time, but also time for a little explore: Today (tuesday) Gina, Jenny and I went to do a school visit...